NFL’s Christmas Day schedule lacks juice despite best-laid plans

AI-assisted summary
• The NFL’s 2025 Christmas Day tripleheader features matchups that have lost their initial appeal due to injuries.
• Multiple teams will be starting backup or third-string quarterbacks, including the Kansas City Chiefs and Washington Commanders.
• The Denver Broncos are pursuing the AFC’s top seed, while the Detroit Lions are fighting for their slim postseason hopes.
• Netflix will stream the first two games, with the third airing on Prime Video.

No presents under the tree for the NFL schedule makers this year – not that it’s necessarily their fault the trio of 2025 Christmas Day games scheduled for Thursday, Dec. 25, lack significant juice.

Instead of trinkets in stockings, we’ll all have to settle for a healthy helping of Chris Oladokun – the Kansas City Chiefs’ starting quarterback in the nightcap against the Denver Broncos – with a side of egg nog (or coquito, if you really know what’s up).

Might as well be coal.  

The NFL took the NBA’s lunch money by commandeering Christmas Day. “The Association” had dominated the sports programming on the holiday day until the league realized its position as a ratings juggernaut could drub any entity in its path. The NFL received $150 million from Netflix to stream the first two games of the day, before the third airs on the traditional Thursday night streamer of Prime Video. But the matchups look less appealing than the lumpy casserole the in-laws brought for dinner. 

In May, when the NFL released its schedule, all three matchups imbued intrigue. But 16 weeks of ball and platitudes such as “best laid plans…” later, that’s simply not the case entering Week 17. Not even the NFL is immune to bad luck, apparently.

Oladokun isn’t the only third-stringer pressed into action on Christmas. In the first game (1 p.m. ET), the Dallas Cowboys – already eliminated from the playoffs – will face Josh Johnson and the Washington Commanders, with quarterbacks Jayden Daniels shut down for the season and Marcus Mariota unavailable. This Commanders team playing one last standalone game is a win for all NFL fans. 

In the second game between the Minnesota Vikings and Detroit Lions, not much is at stake. The Lions can keep their slim postseason hopes alive with a win. Max Brosmer, an undrafted rookie who’s had mixed results through two extended appearances (including that disastrous 26-0 loss to the Seattle Seahawks in his first career start), gets another start at quarterback for the Vikings against a Lions’ defense that has regressed while constantly losing players to injuries.  

The Broncos are in pursuit of the AFC’s No. 1 seed, and a victory would go a long way in that endeavor, along with putting them one step closer to winning the AFC West (they would need a Los Angeles Chargers’ loss on Dec. 27 to complete that task). That Denver defense against a third-string QB? With a fanbase that probably doesn’t take too kindly to the recent news of the stadium move from Missouri to Kansas? Yikes.  

Oladokun, a seventh-round pick in 2022 by the Pittsburgh Steelers, will make his first NFL start. The 22-year-old is next man up after Patrick Mahomes’ season-ending knee injury and backup Gardner Minshew leaving the Chiefs’ loss to the lowly Tennessee Titans on Dec. 21 as well. 

A classic Christmas Miracle isn’t out of the realm of possibility, but miracles are deemed such for a reason. They’re unlikely. 

Both games on Netflix in 2024 averaged 30 million viewers, with action peaking around Beyonce’s halftime performance of the second game between the Baltimore Ravens and Houston Texans (the first featured the Steelers and Chiefs). 

The Thanksgiving Day viewership victory, with Chiefs-Cowboys pulling in a record 57 million viewers, will soothe any potential shortcomings. Both teams playing on the next major holiday is no accident.

For the NFL, not every holiday weekend can be as fortuitous as this past Thanksgiving. The bottom line, the main priority always, won’t be affected. But maybe our viewing habits at home will be this Christmas.